I used fine steel wool (about the consistency of human hair) and
lightly rolled it into a cylinder to fit the tip cavity. I measured t=
he
air temperature with a thermocouple probe at the tip and found I coul=
d
get ~450=BAF with my pump set to a low flow rate. I bought an aquariu=
m
pump with an adjustable flow control.

I also used silicone aquarium tubing and just slid it over the
desoldering bulb pipe. It fits tighly enough that nothing else is
needed to keep the tubing attached. I turn on the air pump first and
don't turn it off until the desoldering iron is cooled down, no
problems with burning the tube so far.

Matt=20

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 17:01:04 -0600, Josh Koffman wrote:
>=A0I'm actually in the midst of designing my first SMT board, to be=
=20
>=A0soldered using the home made hot air pen. How much steel wool did=
 you=20
>=A0put in the tip? I'm sure there is some happy value between slowin=
g
>=A0down the airstream and heating it up, but it seems if you err too
>=A0much on either side, you either get a really strong, cooler
>=A0airstream, or a hotter, really slow airstream.
>=A0
>=A0
>=A0Also, did you put a buffer in between the air hose and the metal =
pipe
>=A0on the iron? It was suggested on the list to use something like t=
he
>=A0tip of a solder sucker, and I do have an extra one, but I haven't=
 put
>=A0it in. I figured that if I always kept the pump running while the
>=A0iron was hot, and even for a little while after I turn off the ir=
on,
>=A0it would keep the pipe cool enough for the tubing.
>=A0
>=A0
>=A0As an aside, if my first attempt at this doesn't go too badly, I =
hope
>=A0to build a little switch box so I can control the iron and pump
>=A0without having to unplug them.
>=A0
>=A0
>=A0Josh --

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